Soleil Royal by Hubac's Historian - Heller - An Extensive Modification and Partial Scratch-Build

[mtaylor]

41 minutes ago, Hubac's Historian said:

Whether the actual SR was quite so vivid I can not say.  I suspect, though, that there was a more extensive use of color than previously believed.

As they went deep into the exploration of the Wasa wreck in the museum, they discovered that her carvings were not monochromatic but rich in colors much like what you are doing.  I feel you're pretty close on your philosophy and implementation.

 

Edit... looks like Bill posted while I was typing away and we both agree on your decorative choices.

[yancovitch]

the figurehead is gorgeous...i would do the same.... and yes ..so much more detail is revealed compared to solid gold.....it comes to life....

Edited May 24, 2022 by yancovitch

[Kevin-the-lubber]

While I dare say some may have a view on your choice of colours I don’t think anyone is going to deny that the effect is spectacular, the execution first class and that there’s solid reasoning behind the choices. 

[Bill Morrison]

The same process used in determining colors used on the Wasa were used when researchers began examining ancient Greek and Roman sculptures. They have been found to have actually been vibrantly painted as opposed to the stoic monochrome appearance of plain granite.  In my mind, Marc is spot on.

Bill

[wefalck]

The 'stoic monochrome' appearance indeed largely is an inadvertent invention of the (art) historians of the 18th century, when interest in the aesthetics of artefacts of past generations awoke. Not only ancient sculpture and buildings were garishly painted, but also the churches of the romanesque and gothic period that today we value for their architectural structure as such. Also, in many protestant areas chruches were white-washed, as the painted decoration was considered distracting and that is how we are used to see them today still.

 

The 'Royal Sun' is coming on nicely and it is good to see the research going into the project. Not that necessarily the colour rendering pleases me aesthetically (I am also more educated in the 'stoic monochrome' tradition), but if it is historically correct, so be it.

[John Clements]

There was a lot of discussion about the colours used a few pages back. In baroque painting in the court of Louis XIV, the allegorical paintings of the classical sun god scenes (which is where the idea of the Sun King came from) used specific colours which were meaningful to the observer, and could also relate to the house colours of the Bourbon family. Given Louis' propensity to control-freakery, I'm sure he took a great interest in the colour design of this ship and would have appreciated Marc's considered rendering. A complex subject and a lot more to it than just a choice between red or blue. One does wonder how much time they had to spend repainting the ships after each voyage.

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you Wefalck and John!

 

I also often wonder at the immense effort at making the ships functional and “pretty” again, after battle.  There are a number of highly detailed VdV grisaille drawings that attest to the carnage.  That is, in large part, what draws me to this period, and particularly to the French; these ships were floating cathedrals and/or castles upon the sea.

 

The best and most exuberant sculptural artists of France were employed to decorate these ships (and the cathedrals and palaces) - each of them knowing exactly how ephemeral their creations were.  That there was an intrinsic willingness of the crown to replace and repair such losses is, frankly incredible to me.

[yancovitch]

yes yes...i'm with you.....and it always frustrated me that these wonderfully talented artists and craftsmen in history, are mostly swept under the carpet, like they hardly existed, whereas these are the people that kings, nobles, and the powerful relied on to create all those things which made kings kings, nobles nobles and the powerful powerful.......

Edited May 27, 2022 by yancovitch

[Hubac's Historian]

The design process continues.  After checking against the model, I realized after all, that I would have to shift the front three pilasters aft by about 1/16”.  Now the gammoning will pass cleanly between the ‘thwartship supporting timbers.

 

I took this opportunity to mark the cardboard template for the height of the aft rosette.  In doing so, it dawned on me that I could do exactly as Druxey suggested, and make additional room space beneath the headrails. His annoying😜 voice kept rattling around my brain, as I kept thinking to myself “you know he’s right!”.  In the end, it was a simple matter of lifting the aft rosette until I was satisfied with the spacing.

 

Now that I had determined to copy the Berain design more closely, I did a little more refining of the rail widths, and then set about drawing the aft, scrolled rosette;  it is simple-seeming enough, but I spent hours trying to draw this volute.  My pointillist-mapping technique for drawing irregular curves looks like this, just before I trace over the dotted line:

I thought this looked pretty good until the next day, when I realized that the volute should be as closely centered on the middle rail as possible.  More hours were spent drawing and erasing:

 

This was much better, however, the scroll within the scroll needed a little re-balancing, especially in consideration of the way in which the horse’s snout nestles into this open area:

Okay, now I could start penciling in only the necessary mouldings to help me determine the size of the bellflower garland:

I am making small alterations to Berain’s design, as I see sensible and/or necessary; in the original drawing the garland runs all in one direction, aftwards.  I have decided to make a transition between the second and third pilasters, so that half the garland runs forward toward the reins of the figurehead.

 

Here is where the drawing stands, as of now:

At this stage, I can photocopy this drawing and paste a copy to my cardboard template, so that I can take precise measurements of where my pixie figure will fit-in without the whole thing looking un-balanced.

 

Drawing all of this, is one matter.  Figuring out how exactly to apply my layered approach to part-making so that there is the appropriate sense of relief and overlay will take some thought.  If that weren’t enough, the headrails bow out, around the beakhead grating, and then reverse inward to tuck-in behind the figurehead.  I don’t think heat-bending is the way to go, here.  I will, instead, induce these curves over a form, over a period of a few days.

 

I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday weekend!

 

More to follow…

Edited May 27, 2022 by Hubac's Historian

[druxey]

That annoying voice.... Sorry about that but, as I  say to my wife, "I'm always right." Then things go black for a while. When I regain consciousness.... On a more serious note, your drafting skills are exemplary.

[Hubac's Historian]

I took measurements off of the model, and transferred them to my drawing, which I had sprayed with hairspray to fix the graphite before proceeding with the pixie figure.  I expected to be erasing a lot, and I was correct!

 

Unfortunately, the hairspray altered the “tooth” of the paper, and I just could not draw clean lines, so I taped an overlay for the pixie.  This was helpful, in revising my earlier attempt because I could re-plot elements I wanted to maintain, while making spatial assessments of what needed to be changed.

 

It took a while to get the proportions of her limbs where I wanted them.  You can see, in comparison with the drawing I made at the start of this project, how scaled-down the horse and pixie now are:

I am satisfied with all of this, so tonight I will paste a photocopy to a blank of 1/16” styrene sheet, and I will begin making the port headrails.

 

The horse figure will be integral to the headrails, while the pixie will be a separate part.  I expect each headrail side to take a couple of weeks to make, but this is an enjoyable and portable side-project.

 

As always, thank you for the likes and for looking-in.  More to follow!

[Dziadeczek]

How do you subsequently carve those reliefs in styrene? I am curious about the process, so, could you please, attach a couple of pics of your tools and the process showing it? Thanks!

Thomas

[yancovitch]

naaa..it's a secret....he's really got elves working for him while he sleeps...and  yes, i'd love to see him carving....

Edited June 2, 2022 by yancovitch

[Hubac's Historian]

On 5/18/2020 at 9:16 AM, Hubac's Historian said:

So, last night, I ordered a pair of small, brass micro-planes.  The quality appears decent, on EBAY, and they weren’t terribly expensive.  What I like about them is that the sole is flat for the middle third, but there’s an entry and exit relief that should facilitate light, fairing passes.  We’ll see what comes of that.

 

I needed a good small-work project, so I have decided to tackle the low-relief Mer-Angels that flank the upper finishing of the quarter galleries.  I’m carving these in 1/16” white styrene, and I will begin with the aft-most pair:

It’s good to carve like-figures in tandem, for the sake of consistency.  The forward pair require a little re-drafting, so that they don’t interfere with my aft-most octagonal port.

 

Anyway, this should be a fun little bit of carving.

Hello Thomas,

 

Of all these kinds of reliefs I’ve made for the model, I did a pretty thorough review of my relief process for the amortisement mermaids.  Beginning with the post cited above (post#1218, page 41) I go through the entire process, and discuss the particular tools that I use to get there.  The beauty of styrene, as opposed to wood, is that you really don’t need many knives to get really good results.

 

You will see each of these discussed in the subsequent posts, but I essentially use two Exacto blades - one more accute than the other - a hooked chip-carving knife, a short and shallow sweep gouge, and a fine veiner.  That’s basically it.

[Hubac's Historian]

In consideration of Thomas’s request, I’ve been photographing the headrails as I carve the horse ornament.  The starting place was to carve the fanned relief in the inner scroll:

From there, carving the horse is mostly about establishing levels within the carving.  Here, I’ve determined that where the mane meets the horse’s back will be the lowest-depth cut of the carving, my baseline:

After undercutting the mane a bit, which helps give dimension, later during the modeling of the mane, I decided to proceed from the tail to snout, as this Roman skirt was an easy thing to understand and model:

It all proceeds smoothly enough, until the head, which presents some challenges.  For the record, I have not done any involved study of horse anatomy.  I am merely attempting to hint at the major muscle groups that animate the animal’s jaw and face.

 

I wanted to experiment with my idea to add the bordering of the headrails.  It was easy enough to induce a curl into this square styrene strip (.020) with my finger nail.  I anchor the starting point with thin CA, and then I work my way around the scroll, 1/4” by 1/4”, with liquid styrene cement.  It turned out about as well as I could have hoped.

Today, I finished up with the modeling of the head and mane.

I still need to add a few applied “buttons” to the two bands that wrap around the horse’s body, but this is a simple thing.  It is not an anatomically perfect study, but there is shape and movement that will catch the light and create shadows when painted.

 

In other news, I have installed the pass-through archways.  Because boxwood carvings will sit upon these, I wanted to ensure that they were very securely affixed.  After much fitting and strategic scraping of paint, I fit two pins (from a paper clip) into each bracket:

The plan was to glue these in using CA in the sections where the pins are, and liquid styrene cement in-between and at the foot.

 

I got the correct rake and alignment for the port side, on the first try.  There were, however, a pair of gaps that needed filling for a secure welded bond:

I added styrene pads to the foot and below the lower pin and then faired these to fit seamlessly.

 

With these brackets in place, my conception of the way Berain’s stern relates to these quarter galleries can be clearly understood:

As a side note: it was really challenging to get the foot of each bracket to align with the pilaster of the gallery bulwark beneath it.  The starboard side is acceptable, but the port side (showing the merely acceptable side) came out perfectly:

I also wanted the brackets to follow the round-up of the stern, so their in-board surfaces had to be beveled, accordingly:

In natural light, this is a very accurate reflection of my colors.  Presently, I continue to do all of the necessary touchups, distress washing (not applied to brackets yet, in these pictures), and blackening of the upper main wales and channels, on the starboard side.

 

My least favorite aspect of this build is attempting to cut super-clean lines directly onto the model.  The plywood base is a tremendous asset for these circumstances, but it is always awkward and difficult.  Here, my line began to waver, after I had been at it for a few hours:

The back and forth process of revision is on-going.  The Heller kit has many flaws, but I do think it is fair to say that they get the aft sheer, pretty close to the mark:

More to follow!

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Hubac's Historian

[yancovitch]

all i can say, is ''breathtaking''.......amazing photos too.....

[Hubac's Historian]

As always Victor, I appreciate your continued interest in my log!  I would especially like to highlight a new project that Vic has begun, because I think it presents a really interesting approach to the ever-vexing problem of what Soleil Royal may have been:

 

 

 

[mtaylor]

Acceptable on one side?   More like brilliant and perfect from what I see.  I think I'll give up model ships and take up snipe hunting.

[yancovitch]

yaaa...me too, when i see such perfection....but naaa....i figure we all have a place in the hierarchy here, no matter how humble....someone always comes out with something interesting 🙂 

   oh that's gotta put some pressure on me 😄...believe me you would all laugh to see how i'm trying to put that project together...rip some off here...build some up there...a comedy of errors me thinks...but one thing i do do..... is persevere...so, we'll see what happens....

Edited June 10, 2022 by yancovitch

[Hubac's Historian]

Vic - you are a bonafide ship-modeling legend and a true artist.  You are among the very few to have sailed their historic creations on open water, and the pure magic of all of that is an inspiration to everyone that sees them.  I’ve seen the bare bones of what you have planned - it’s going to be amazing, no matter what way you get there, and particularly because you think outside the ol’ sea chest. 

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you, Mark!  There is no need to give up the hobby; angles are everything in photography, and that angle lies a little bit.

[druxey]

So much eye candy all in one posting!! Too much1 Just lovely, although - if I may say this - the horse head profiles should have the bump along the middle of the nose profile reduced just a little; they look a bit moose-like at present.

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you, Druxey!  I based the horseheads, somewhat, on the Ford Mustang emblem, but who says I can’t tackle a little rhinoplasty? 

Edited June 10, 2022 by Hubac's Historian

[Dziadeczek]

Awesome!!!   Thanks so much for everything!

Thomas

[wefalck]

Not 'my' time and my preferred aesthetics, but very impressive rendering 👏

[John Clements]

Awesome indeed. Although I don't intend to - and indeed couldn't - emulate your dedication and craftsmanship, these detailed posts are fascinating and an inspiration to continue my own efforts with this particular kit with all its imperfections and question marks. I can see I'm going to have to try my hand at plastic carving at some stage; your step by step pictures are so useful. Thank you for being so generous with your time in writing all this up.

Won't it be interesting in some years time to see all these different versions that are being worked on in a hopefully complete state?

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you, John, and you are welcome.  My hope with the log is to demonstrate what is possible with plastic, and I would love it if this project inspires people to take the Heller kit in different directions.  There is a La Reine, in-process, on this site.  Maybe someday, some intrepid soul will really launch into a Royal Louis, 1668, which I think is eminently possible to make a representative, if not wholly authentic model of from the Heller kit.  Plastic is fun.  I hope to encourage people to play with it.

[Bill Morrison]

Marc,

For some reason, I am not getting most of your postings.  Needless to say, your SR is beyond stunning! GREAT JOB!!!

Bill

[FriedClams]

Great update Marc!  I really like the horse carving and the nautilus looking device below it.  You have a steady hand - well done.  The photos taken in natural light shows the true colors of the model - more muted and harmonious than under artificial light.  Beautiful.

 

Gary   

[Hubac's Historian]

Bill and Gary - thank you very much!  Bill, I have occasionally had this problem, but not lately.  I don’t know why.  Gary - I like your descriptor: the “nautilus” carving!  And, you are right about the natural light - the while thing appears a lit less garish in-person, and in the day.